Two young girls and a Good Samaritan were killed after being struck by a car in Miami, Florida, this weekend. The driver of the car may have operating under the influence of alcohol.
The girls, both 17—Anapaula Saldana and Caroline Agreda—were standing outside of their car following an accident they had with another vehicle. Passing motorist, Eduardo Hernandez pulled over to help, according to police, wrote the New York Daily News. The driver of another car, Christopher Masferrer, hit and killed all three. Police say that Masferrer might have been drinking.
The girls had crashed into an SUV at Southwest 15th Avenue and 56th Street early this Sunday morning, according to WFOR-TV. The girls were standing by the vehicle they had been driving at the intersection where they crashed. Hernandez, 45, stopped to offer help to the girls and Josefa Quiñones, 68, who had been driving the SUV, according to police, wrote the Daily News
Hernandez, who was a married father of three children, was speaking with the girls, both students at Sunset Senior High School in West Kendall, Florida, when Masferrer’s car slammed into all three. One witness told WFOR-TV, “We saw him…. We looked to the right and saw his headlights coming straight down the street … no screeching, no braking, no nothing.” Police believe Masferrer, 30, who was arrested at the scene, was drunk when he crashed into the Saldana, Agreda, and Hernandez.
None of the three could be saved, according to the Daily News.
Another driver said he stopped at the scene about the same time as Hernandez, the Miami Herald reported. He spoke to both of the girls and let them use his phone. “Without asking, they told me: ‘We are not drunk right now. We are not drunk,’” he told the Miami Herald. He also told the paper that the girls’ driving was erratic and he thought they had run a red stoplight before their crash with the SUV. “Judging by where their car was, they had run the flashing red light and hit the SUV,” he said. He said that he then went to check on Quiñones, passing Hernandez on his way across the street. As he approached the SUV, he said he heard the crash. He told the Miami Herald that Masferrer mowed down the girls, hit their car, and hit Hernandez. “The car was coming toward me and I managed to get out of the way just before he hit the SUV and stopped,” he added. “I am still shaking. A man got run over in front of my face.”
Miami-Dade County police said Quiñones and Masferrer were being treated for their injuries at the Kendall Regional Medical Center, according to the Daily News. As of yesterday morning, no charges had been filed. Meanwhile, investigators are working to determine if Masferrer was drinking prior to the crash.
According to a friend of Hernandez, he was just a few blocks away from home when he was killed. “He was a great dad, son, and husband,” who worked difficult hours for the Coral Gables’ parking department, according to the Miami Herald. “He had to get up at 3:00 in the morning because his job required him to be at the office at 4:00. And despite how tiring that could be, he was an active father, very involved in all of his children’s activities.”
Friends of Saldana and Agreda attended a vigil on Sunday night. “It’s just shocking right now,” a friend of Saldana’s told the local CBS affiliate. “It’s hitting me that I actually lost my best friend.” Another friend said, “It sucks how one guy had to ruin the lives of three people and the lives of many families.”
